Page 4 - Dinuba Sentinel 12-13-18 E-edition

Opinion
A4 | Thursday, December 13,, 2018
In My Opinion
"H ose who do not learn from history.."
ow often have all of us, at conflict, in an effort one time or another, found to end the killing and ourselves lamenting the destruction.
Fred Hall
Although it was evident to everyone back in 1945, the introductionofsuch a frightening display of power was the best solution to end the bloodletting forever.
Fred Hall - Publisher Rick Curiel - Editor
failure of our schools and colleges to teach history in the modern classroom? “Those who do not learn from history are doomedtorepeatit.” Thatquoteappears to have originally come from George Santayana, a philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist who lived and worked in
the latter part of the nineteen century and continued his legacy until the mid twentiethcentury.
Education seems to have moved on to social issues and the politically correct position of the time rather than providing perspective of the historical events who makeuswhoweare. Youngpeople
are essentially carefully programmed drones who have been submersed in the philosophiesoftheirteachers. Severely neglected are core educational concepts such as history, reading, writing and communicationskills. Childrenleave school (that includes our colleges and high schools) woefully unprepared for the real world while being ingrained with opinions which are entirely unsupported.
What would you say if I were to tell you that the current epidemic of class warfare was nothing new but existed
as far back as 350 BC? One would think that, if history were truly and effectively being taught, we would know that it existed that long ago and was an element in the destruction of a society. Frankly, then as now, this war was joined and even driven by the writings and pronouncements of the educated elite Plato actually described Athens as being bifurcated or decidedly two cities. He declared one as a city occupied by thepoorandonebytherich. Onewas openly at war with the other.
Men of means were forced to defend themselves against claims of wealth andpropertyownershipasifwerea crime. Aswithallconfrontations,it was inevitable that one would gain controlovertheother. Justaswe
are experiencing today, class envy
led to higher taxes and the essential destruction of upper and middle classes. Government will inevitably crumble, usuallyresultinginthetakeoverbya despot with an iron hand who returns order but exacts an awful price in terms offreedomslost.
Last week, for example, we experienced a day of remembrance— December 7 marked the day of that vicious attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941- -which changed the world forever. Probably,asidefromtheawfuldeath toll of a sneak bombing raid early on
a Sunday morning, the saddest thing to be said is that we have people who don’t truly understand what happened. We’ve since apologized for bombing the perpetrator, after a bloody 4-year
Guest Column
I U.S. Post O ce, not for sale
The results were nightmarish but the resultwasundeniable. NooneIknew felt good about what had happened. Wartime, itself, is basically inhumane but it seems there will always be those among us create war for a variety of reasons,butespeciallyoverterritoryand financial considerations.
It’s always best to end any conflict byanymeansnecessaryandassoonas possible.
There are many among us who, throughtheyears,havebecomeeither taught of convinced that everything that happens in the world is America’s Fault. We have a large swath of college students who have matriculated believing that, somehow, this country is inherently evil because we have committed missteps while becoming the world’s most benevolent super power. I suspect there will be a day of rude awakening if those people are ever successful in their efforts to diminish America’s power.
The best solution so much of the misinformation we are fed in schools and through a biased media is to either buy books and read them or go to the library while they still exist. Social media and the internet have taken a huge toll on American intellect in areas of social interaction. Anyoneexpectingtogetan unvarnished view of history or current events should not expect to find them
on Facebook or any of the on-line news sites. Fartoomuchoftoday’swriting, evenwithnewspapers,iscloakedin advocacy journalism.
Oneofthewonderfullessonsavailable to all of is that it is never too late to
learn and knowledge is the greatest weapon available to combat tyranny in the educational process being foisted uponthelasttwoorthreegenerations. I realize it might sound trite but awareness of the truth can be a great tool to combat thedumbingdownofAmerica. We’ve seen all of this before and no matter
how fashionable some of the socialistic thinking currently being foisted on all us may appear to be, please remember: we’ve tried it all before somewhere in historyanditneverworks. Nothingis worth surrendering one’s freedoms for!
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Fred Hall is publisher of the Dinuba Sentinel
Guest Column
A view of the migrant caravan from south of the border
P
As a caravan of hundreds of migrants arrive in Tijuana,
Trump.
All the administration has done is
put the migrants — largely women and their children — at further risk, even subjecting them to attacks with tear gas, a weapon so brutal that international law bans it in military combat.
Mexicans themselves, once the target of Trump’s racist campaign (remember
when he called them rapists and
resident Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric hasn’t just infected U.S. politics. Now it’s made its way south of the border.
some residents there have started taking up Trump’s ideology. Juan Manuel Gastélum, the mayor of Tijuana,
has been seen wearing a red “Make Tijuana Great Again” baseball cap. In an interview with Milenio News, he painted the migrants as a dangerous threat.
“Sure, there are some good people in the caravan, but many are very bad for the city,” Gastélum said.
And on November 19, a few hundred protested against the migrant caravan in Tijuana chanting “Tijuana first.” In the days before the protest, locals even attacked some migrants with stones.
These are the real effects of Trump’s rhetoric. Luckily, despite growing anti-immigrant sentiments, there are still many in Mexico who support and defend the migrants. This gives me hope.
Thousands of migrants are facing a humanitarian crisis in Tijuana, after walking more than 2,500 miles. Many simply want their chance to seek asylum in the United States, which is their legal right. But they may have to wait months for their chance.
Not only are the migrants dealing with unsanitary, impoverished conditions while they wait. Now they have to face the hatred that’s resulted from Trump’s presidency before they even cross the border.
Migrant caravans have existed for decades as a way for immigrants to travel safely together to the United States. The media spectacle around the practice now obscures an important fact: Unauthorized migration to the U.S. has been declining for years. Last year, arrests at the border fell to a 46-year low.
But just before the midterm elections, Trump decided to pick on a caravan of migrants from Honduras, telling U.S. residents that they’re criminals to stoke fear — and to make himself the hero of the story.
Trump even deployed nearly 6,000 military troops to the U.S.-Mexico border while the caravan was still weeks away, making it clear to me that this was all just politics for
Jasmine Aguilera
’ve been a postal clerk for 23 years, report on government serving my customers in a public restructuring. And post office in Gresham, Oregon. just in time for the
murders?), have started repurposing Trump’s words to point the arrow at a new target: migrants
trying to escape some of the most dangerous countries in the world.
I’m the daughter of Mexican immigrants who saw their own share of hatred when they arrived in the United States. It’s heartbreaking to me that Mexicans in Tijuana would now start turning their backs on these migrants, and it’s clear to me that Trump has influenced them. Just listen to their chants of “Mexico first.”
The situation is dire. But for all of the hatred that’s spewed out of this humanitarian crisis, there are hopeful moments.
While hundreds of anti-immigrant protesters took to the streets to express their anger, there were also people countering them with welcoming chants.
Many along the caravan’s path welcomed the migrants, offering food, shelter, and clothing. A new president in Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has also promised more humane treatment of the migrants, and plans to work with the Tijuana mayor to come up with a practical solution.
If anti-migrant Mexicans are now taking after Trump, I hope more Americans will now take after the Mexicans who chose to welcome the refugees. No matter your ideology, they deserve to be treated humanely as they act on their legal right to seek asylum.
Jasmine Aguilera is a freelance writer and reporter from El Paso, Texas. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, NowThis, and more. Distributed by OtherWords. org.
As you might imagine, with the holidays fast approaching, it’s a busy time of year for us. Every day, I help my customers mail letters, cards, and packages across town and across the county. Even when we’re busy, it’s a joy to share a small part in spreading holiday cheer.
Because the Postal Service charges uniform rates across the country, I don’t need to ask you if a package is being sent to a home or a business, or whether the recipient lives in a big city or a distant rural area.
You can select a flat rate box that goes anywhere for one price, no matter what’s inside. Or if you pack your own gift, we price it based on weight and distance. The post office never charges you more to send your gift just because your grandma happens to live out in the country.
If you took your packages to a private delivery firm, on the other hand, you might be hit with extra charges because of where your grandma lives.
On top of their base rates, UPS and FedEx charge more for deliveries to over half of all U.S. ZIP codes — hitting not just Alaska, Hawaii, and other distant areas, but also many small towns. Even suburbs of major cities — like Laveen, just eight miles from Phoenix, and Whites Creek, eight miles from Nashville — can draw extra charges.
According to new research by the Institute for Policy Studies, these ZIP codes are home to around 70 million people.
These extra costs already range up to $4.45 for a package delivered to a home in a rural area. But my real worry is that these extra costs are just a taste of what would happen if the U.S. Postal Service is sold off to private, for-profit corporations.
Last summer, the White House Office of Management and Budget recommended postal privatization in a
Kathy Toler
holidays, a presidential task force just made recommendations that would slow down the mail, privatize large portions of the Postal Service, and lead to other service cuts.
If these privatization efforts succeed, millions of people may well face a return to 19th century standards of expensive, private delivery services and limited USPS access.
For the first 121 years of U.S. history, postal services were limited to those in cities. Farmers and other pioneers had to either travel long distances to cities or pay handsomely for private carriers to deliver their mail periodically.
Without competition from the public Postal Service, for-profit firms would likely jack up delivery fees even higher for the 70 million people who already live in areas hit by delivery surcharges.
And of course, USPS doesn’t just ship gifts. Millions of people rely on us for delivery of prescription drugs, medical supplies, and other essential items.
I think of myself as a public servant. I’m glad that the United States Postal Service treats all Americans fairly, regardless of where they live or work. A privatized, for- profit company won’t do that.
If the armfuls of gifts customers bring into my post office are any indication, that means holiday shipping would be a lot more expensive for millions of people.
Let’s protect the world’s finest public postal network, and together insist that the U.S. Mail is Not for Sale.
Kathy Toler has been a postal clerk in Gresham, Oregon for 23 years. The views expressed here are her own, not her employer’s. Distributed by OtherWords. org.
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